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Pataphysics Has Always Existed, Although It Took a French Literary Madman, Alfred Jarry (1873-1907), to Recognise It and Give It a Name

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Pataphysics Has Always Existed, Although It Took a French Literary Madman, Alfred Jarry (1873-1907), to Recognise It and Give It a Name Pataphysics ‘Pataphysics has always existed, although it took a French literary madman, Alfred Jarry (1873-1907), to recognise it and give it a name. Jarry defined ‘pataphysics as “the science of imaginary solutions, which symbolically attributes the properties of objects, described by their virtuality, to their lineaments”. He said: “pataphysics will examine the laws governing exceptions, and will explain the universe supplementary to this one”. He also observed that ‘pataphysics extends beyond metaphysics as far as metaphysics does beyond physics. The apostrophe at the start of the word ‘pataphysics indicates that a prefix, perhaps the pataphysical prefix, is missing. The word is frequently seen these days without the apostrophe, and in this sense is generally understood to signify unconscious Pataphysics. We are all pataphysicians - it’s just that some people know they are. This CD contains a brief history of ‘pataphysics in sound. It includes: • ‘pataphysical music by ‘pataphysicians • pataphysical music by non-‘pataphysicians, and indeed • pataphysical music by ‘pataphysicians. It also includes several pataphysical pieces created especially for the CD. The history of ‘pataphysics is spiriform, like the gidouille drawn on Ubu’s belly. Any spiral is in fact two spirals: the one that is drawn, and the one that is defined by the one that is drawn. The spiral paths of ‘pataphysics lead through the Collège de ‘Pataphysique and its offshoots, but also through the world beyond its imaginary walls. The doctrine of Equivalence teaches us that a page of the telephone directory is worth the same as the Exploits and Opinions of Dr Faustroll, ‘Pataphysician. The world and the Collège de ‘Pataphysique stand in the same relationship. Eadem Mutata Resurgo (“I shall arise the same, though changed”)1. So, sit back and relax, dear listener. Open a can of Pschitt and enjoy the sensations that wiggle the spiral of your basilar canal. Your curator, Andrew Hugill, has prepared some unhelpful notes to aid incomprehension of what follows. It is suggested that you do anything rather than read these as the music plays. On the other hand, just like Jarry’s ‘Army of Free Men’ who systematically disobey every order they are given (and are then thrown into confusion when Ubu obeys), we have no doubt at all that you will ignore this advice. Track 1: Marche Funèbre composée pour les funérailles d'un grand homme sourd (Funeral March composed for the interment of an illustrious deaf man) Alphonse Allais (1884) 1’ 28” Like Erik Satie, Alphonse Allais (1854-1905) was born in Honfleur, Normandy. He composed this piece for the 1884 2 exhibition of Les Arts Incoherents in Paris. Allais had also created the first monochrome canvases for these 1 From Robert C. Yates (1952): “The investigation of spirals began at least with the ancient Greeks. The famous Equiangular Spiral was discovered by Descartes, its properties of self-reproduction by James (Jacob) Bernoulli (1654-1705) who requested that the curve be engraved upon his tomb with the phrase "Eadem mutata resurgo" ("I shall arise the same, though changed.")” 2 Curated by Jules Lévy. The artists Edouard Manet, Pierre Auguste Renoir, and Camille Pissarro, the composer Richard Wagner, and the king of Bavaria were visitors to the 1882 exhibition! exhibitions: an all-white one entitled Anemic Young Girls Taking their First Communion in the Snow, an all-red one entitled Apoplectic Cardinals Picking Tomatoes in the Noon- day Sun, and so on. It need hardly be pointed out that the Funeral March, which is receiving its first recording on this CD,3 was written many years before a more celebrated composition by John Cage.4 The pataphysicians call this process plagiarism by anticipation. Track 2: Chanson du Décervelage. Alfred Jarry, Charles Pourny. Music by Claude Terrasse. (1896) 2’ 45” 3 The score is unclear about duration, so I have made this recording the length of an imaginary performance of the tune from Chopin’s Funeral March. 4 4’ 33”, the silent piece, was composed in 1952. Lithograph by Jarry. Track 3: Hymne des Palotins. Alfred Jarry, Charles Pourny. Music by Claude Terrasse. (1896) 2’ 54” Woodcut by Jarry depicting The Palotins In 1896, Alfred Jarry’s Ubu Roi was staged for the first time in Paris. There have been many accounts of this legendary performance5, and the influence it has had on subsequent theatre is considerable. Indeed, it is still frequently being reinterpreted and performed today, one recent example being Jane Taylor’s version, Ubu and the truth commission, about South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. 5 See Shattuck, R. (1958) The Banquet Years. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co. The monstrous figure of Ubu, with his equally monstrous wife and a team of minions called the ‘Palotins’, rule an imaginary Poland through terror and arbitrary acts of absurd generosity, guided by a cod science of pataphysics. Ubu began life as a schoolboy parody of a science teacher, M. Hébert. The opening word of the play is “merdre” (variously translated as Shittr, Pshit, etc etc), at which the audience erupted. There were fist fights and continuous haranguing of the production throughout the performance, after which W. B. Yeats (no less) famously remarked “what more is possible? After us, the Savage God.” The anarchic qualities of Jarry’s play, and subsequently of Jarry himself, were viewed variously as a threat to bourgeois society and a gigantic schoolboy hoax. It is important to be aware, however, that ‘pataphysics is bigger than Ubu, and bigger than Jarry himself (as he well knew). The word appears in several other texts by Jarry, in particular the highly influential novel Days and Nights, and the Bible of ‘pataphysics, the Exploits and Opinions of Dr Faustroll, ‘Pataphysician. Here the word acquires a less obviously anarchic quality and several key pataphysical concepts are introduced, such as syzygy (a rare conjunction, usually of three astral bodies) and clinamen (an accidental swerve in the path of an atom which, in Epicurean theory, creates matter). Plays-on-words and layers of hidden meaning, ambiguation and disambiguation, mathematical and scientific play, plus and minus, all characterise ‘pataphysics. In the last words of Faustroll: “Pataphysics is the science.” These two songs from Ubu Roi were recorded in 1951 and 1946 respectively, by the choir of the recently formed Collège de ‘Pataphysique. In the fevered intellectual atmosphere of postwar Paris6, the meta-ironical humour of ‘pataphysics represented a welcome breath of fresh air. The first Vice- Curator of the Collège was His Magnificence Dr Sandomir, who published Statutes and a pataphysical calendar consisting of a thirteen month year and starting from the 7 birth of Jarry. Within ten pataphysical years, membership 6 Sartre’s Les Chemins de la Liberté (The Roads to Freedom), for example, were published between 1945 and 1949. Surrealism, too, was still in evidence. The imperturbability of ‘pataphysics has always tended to sit rather uncomfortably with surrealism, although many of the early pataphysicians were also noted surrealists. 7 “The Pataphysical Calendar is a rearrangement of the Gregorian year calendar. The Pataphysical Era begins on September 8th, 1873, Jarry's birthday, and that date begins the Pataphysical year. The year is divided into thirteen months of 28 or 29 days each. Each day has a name (like a traditional French calendar of saints), always obscure and usually indecent. Each month begins with a Sunday, and has a Friday the 13th. Of course, the only way to do this is to intercalate days into the week, so that days of the Pataphysical week do NOT correspond to the days of the week in the Gregorian calendar. Since 13 x 28 is 364, there must be an intercalary day (two in a leap year) which is NOT a day of the Pataphysical week. Each month has a 29th day, called a Hunyadi (ün-ya-DEE) - the name of a Hungarian patriot or a Hungarian laxative, depending on who you read. The Hunyadis are IMAGINARY days, with one exception (two in leap years). The non-imaginary Hunyadis are called "Hunyadi gras", Fat Hunyadi, like Mardi Gras I guess. The 29th of the month of Gidouille (= 13 July) is the annual intercalary day, with leap year day being the 29th of the month of Gueueles (= 23 February).” Quoted from Bob included: Raymond Queneau, Jacques Prévert, Max Ernst, Eugène Ionesco, Joan Miró, François Caradec, Marcel Duchamp, Camille Renault, the Marx Brothers, Ergé, Boris Vian, Barbara Wright, Marie-Louise Aulard, Jean Dubuffet, René Clair, Simon Watson Taylor and many many others. LA CHANSON DU DÉCERVELAGE Je fus pendant longtemps ouvrier ébéniste Dans la ru’ du Champs d’ Mars, d’ la paroiss’ de Toussaints; Mon épouse exerçait la profession d’ modiste Et nous n’avions jamais manqué de rien. Quand le dimanch’ s’annonçait sans nuage, Nous exhibions nos beaux accoutrements Et nous allions voir le décervelage Ru’ d’ l’Echaudé, passer un bon moment. Voyez, voyez la machin’ tourner, Voyez, voyez la cervell’ sauter, Voyez, voyez les Rentiers trembler; (Choeur): Hourra, cornes-au-cul, vive le Père Ubu ! Translation by Dan Clore: For far too long I worked as a cabinet-maker, My spouse had the trade of designin' women's attire, In All-Saints' Parish, Rue du Champ d'Mars, And we never lacked whatever it was we might desire. Whenever Sunday appeared with no cloud in the sky We went down to watch some debrainin' get done, Dressed to the nines in our spiffiest raiments, On the Rue d'l'Echaudé, and have arselves some fun. See, see the Machine rotatin', See, see, the brains all aviatin' See, see, the Rentiers shakin' 'n' quakin'; (Chorus): Asshole-horns, yahoo! -- Long live Father Ubu! Richmond’s website at http://user.icx.net/~richmond/rsr/pataphysique/pataphysique.html HYMNE DES PALOTINS C’est nous les Palotins C’est nous les Palotins On a des gueul’s d’ lapins, Mais ça n’empêche pas Qu’on est sal’ment calé Pour tuder les Rentiers.
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